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Diary
These are diary entries written by various non-Coppelion characters (a survivor, nurse, SDF soldier, first division soldier, scientist) throughout the story about the Coppelions. This was taken from the Coppelion on the Animax site . Each diary is uploaded once a week on the same day that the Coppelion anime aired (every Wednesday 9PM at Japan, From October 2 to December 25, 2013). Oct 2 - Survivor Diary It's been so long now... Since the incident. All these interminable, empty days that melt into each other. Even if I still move and feel and breathe, this is not living. I am merely existing. And yet... The strangest sight came before me today. Even now I'm unsure if it was just a hallucination, borne of my craving for normalcy. There were three girls walking the streets, without even a shred of protective clothing. Why were they unaffected? They should have become critically ill with this level of contamination... I couldn't help but to follow them. They settled down at the bridge. One of them - the one with short hair and the bright smile - she had rice balls. And croquettes! It's been so long since I've seen anything like that. My mouth watered and I inched ever so slightly closer. But I couldn't bring myself to go any further. They couldn't be normal. Not if they could survive without protection. I had to make sure they were not dangerous. Abruptly, they moved to the railings. Did they see something? I crawled closer, and then I saw him - someone like me, encased in protective clothing. It looked like he had succumbed to the contamination. All our suits were like that. They offered but minimal protection. I watched the girls. Two of them were cowering at one side. But the other girl... She leapt off the railing and headed towards the man. My heart swelled. Could she be here to help? Can I trust her after all? I moved closer, preparing to reveal myself. But then she drew a gun on the man! I hastily dropped back into cover and watched. He seemed unhurt. Perhaps it wasn't a bullet at all. I stayed hidden as a helicopter landed. Men in protective suits filed out and took the other survivor away. I waited until they left, then I followed the girls again. Somehow I trusted them, although I still didn't know why they were immune to contamination. They settled down for the night, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't risk losing sight of them. ... Morning broke, and I continued shadowing them. They moved inward to the city center. With every passing minute I was more and more amazed by their ability to withstand the contamination. Then the girls split up, and I decided to follow the girl with the gun. She seemed like she would know what to do. I watched as they stumbled upon another casualty, who had taken the quicker way out. But then from the darkness a wolf suddenly leapt out, a snarling mass of taut muscle. I jumped to my feet, intending to help, but the girl with the gun made short work of it. I returned to my hiding spot as the short-haired girl exclaimed that "This isn't a place that humans should enter." I really couldn't agree more. Oct 9 - Survivor Diary The girls continue to intrigue me. After leaving the dead survivor, they realized that their other friend was missing. The bloodied tracks on the ground seemed ominous, but they seemed hopeful that she would be fine. I marveled at their optimism. It seemed second nature to me now to simply imagine the worst of any situation. I watched them follow the tracks until it led them to the dog from before. Then another survivor emerged, dragging along the other girl as a hostage. I recognized him - I've seen him around, with his wife and daughter, near the hospital. I assume they've made that their home base. It's but one of the several tiny survivor enclaves scattered around the city. I heard him tell the girls about his missing daughter, and they agreed to help him search for her. The four of them headed off to the hospital, and I shadowed them silently. They went inside, and I wondered briefly if I should leave, but again my anxiety over losing sight of the girls made me stay.They reappeared a while later, and I continued after them. After a while, it became clear where they were headed to. They were going toward the race course. I knew then that I would not be able to follow them for much longer. That area was unbelievably toxic. Just a few minutes in there could kill someone, even if they were in protective clothing. Of course, I don't suppose that matters to the girls. I stopped just away from where they left the other survivor. I couldn't follow them any longer, but it didn't matter. All of us knew full well what lay beyond anyway. Everyone had lost someone. And the lost were left there, in that space beyond. I guess we all needed to maintain some semblance of human ritual even in a situation so utterly removed from normalcy. As I watched their retreating figures, I pondered over my strange fascination with these girls. If I were hoping for rescue, I could have approached them at any point. But there's just something about these girls that seems so fragile. They're ostensibly our rescuers, but they seem somehow vulnerable themselves... Oct 16 - Nurse's Journal Feeling particularly drained after my shift today. It wasn't just the endless stream of patients, or the inexhaustible list of chores to do, or even the immense concentration needed because a human life depends on your actions... I'm all used to that now. If anything, I guess what really got to me was seeing the two new patients admitted just the other day. I checked their files, and it seems they're survivors from the old capital. Astounding as it is that there are still living people in the city, it surprises me even more that one of these patients is but a little girl, and that the other can be so severely injured by contamination. The little girl - Miku - hardly speaks at all, and it breaks my heart that so young a child can be so damaged. I've tried to reach out to her, stopping by whenever I can afford to throughout the day. But she's always in the same spot when I see her - standing blankly and unmoving by the window, gazing out toward the old capital. Doesn't she realise that there's nothing there for her anymore? I can't help but wonder if she will ever recover from all that she has been through. Is there even a way to come back from all that? You know, come to think of it, Miku isn't all that much younger than the Coppelion girls. I mean, I know their existence is not publicized, but you get to hear all sorts of things in a hospital. Especially since SDF personnel seem to be visiting more often to look in on the survivors, and let's just say they're not exactly discreet. The Coppelion... I've heard that their name comes from the French ballet Coppélia - the one about a doctor who created a beautiful living doll. But they're not merely dolls or puppets, are they? I overheard the SDF captain talking to them over the radio, and they sound just like ordinary kids. But how can they expect children to take on such a weighty burden? Even if they're genetically engineered, they're still just children after all. It's just... Not right. They shouldn't be put through this. And yet... I suppose that is their entire raison d'être. I can't begin to fathom how they must view the incident. It was undoubtedly a horrific tragedy, but it was this tragedy that ultimately gave them life and reason to exist. It must be hard on them, knowing that they were created with a specific purpose in mind, and to have nothing to bind them to this world but that mission for which they were brought to life for. Surely I can't be the only one with these thoughts. I can't help but feel there's just something not entirely moral or just about using the girls like this... They may be named after a doll, but we can't just take them to be mere puppets, right? Oct 23 - SDF Personnel Log I don't think I'll ever get used to silence again after so much time in the heli. I get so accustomed to the thunder of the rotor blades that the silence at the end of the day seems ironically more deafening. I shouldn't be complaining though; I'm glad to help out however I can. Especially after the reports from the Coppelion girls today. They've discovered the source of the spikes in contamination throughout Former Capital. It seems the city - shell of its former glory as it is - is being further desecrated by the illegal dumping of contaminated waste. I suppose it makes sense in a twisted way. Vice-Principal pointed out that it doesn't make much difference to bring more waste to a place already so ravaged by contamination. Yet I'm sure it pains us all to know that the last hopes for our Former Capital are being slowly but surely eroded away. I'm not sufficiently magnanimous to imagine some rose-tinted future where we sacrifice Former Capital for the sake of the world. Though it's been two decades I can still remember the sprawling city before me, its towering skyscrapers and its roads like arteries extending as far as the eye could see... All of that was utterly devastated in just a few minutes. And while I know it's no use pointing fingers, whenever I think about the tragedy it always comes back to one person - Denjirou Shiba. I used to think that he'd died in the incident, which always seemed like poetic justice to me. But the Coppelion girls found him. He's still living in that dead city he just about single-handedly created. I couldn't understand how he could live with himself, knowing that the blood of so many thousands was on his hands, so it seemed ineluctable to me that he had chosen to die. And yet there we were, rushing at full speed to save this man who shouldn't be saved. And of all the people in the world, why did it have to be Vice-Principal who had to go to his rescue? He's got good reason to detest Shiba. On the way over he was looking over that family photo he keeps on him at all times. It's plain for all to see that he's still hurting from his loss. And then they finally met. There was that one tense moment of confrontation - Vice-Principal on one side, the professor doubled over and supported by Ibara on the other. But then he proffered his hand to the man responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. Seeing this, I guess it's not hard to understand why Vice-Principal is so admired and respected by his subordinates. I'm not sure I could have done the same if I were in his shoe... Oct 30 - 1st Division Personnel Log Too little, too late. I guess that's a maxim the brilliant minds of our great Self Defence Force just don't understand. I could hardly believe it when our patrol encountered the helicopters. And that shelter they deployed to contain the contaminated waste. Where was all of this when we actually needed it? They left us here to die. To rot and waste away along with this entire dying city. Not even a single soldier was sent to help us. No supply drops, no resources, not even the courtesy to provide any form of radio communications to at least tell us to stop waiting and hoping for rescue that would never come. How many days passed before the last remnants of our hopes petered out? Imagine the agony, that indefatigable hope in the initial days... Just day after day of trying to catch the faintest echo of rotor blades, straining to make out a hazy form on the horizon, falling into an uneasy sleep every night intensely fearful that rescue would come and we would miss it in our sleep... And then we finally came to our senses. No one was coming for us. They'd abandoned the entire 1st Division, probably at the order of Prime Minister Natsume. I wouldn't have put it past him to have been the main proponent of the idea. We deserved so much more than this. We deserved a hero's welcome home, accolades and medals and acknowledgements of our courage! Not this... Not such cruel abandonment and isolation. I suppose they all thought we were dead. That we'd succumbed to the contamination and wasted away like the other tens of thousands of people who were unable to escape. I have to hand it to the higher-ups at SDF though. After all that training we went through, did they really think we would be overcome so easily? They underestimated their training programs. They severely underestimated us. We didn't die. We didn't give ourselves over to fate. We survived, and we thrived. And all this time we've waited, not for rescue, but for a chance to pay them back in their own coin. And that chance is finally upon us now. It doesn't matter what they throw at us - not that fancy new land mine they used against us, or those genetically enhanced girls. We haven't been idle these past few years either. Prime Minister Natsume, if I were you I'd be shaking at my knees now. You won't like what we've got up our sleeves... Nov 06 - 1st Division Personnel Log The other survivors, they call us ghosts. I've always found the term incredibly apt. We're phantoms of the past after all, having been abandoned to die. Our survival to date has been nothing short of a miracle, and yet I hesitate to use that word. None of this was left up to chance. We grasped at every hope and every resource we could draw on to live till today. Yet that doesn't change the fact that to the outside world we don't exist. Not as humans or individuals, anyway. Even if rescue squads were to turn up right this moment at our doorsteps, we wouldn't be acknowledged. We've given up far too much to be considered human any longer. Honestly, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't think of us as sub-human. Each of us wears a mask, but it's not for protection against contamination. There's nothing much left of us to be overly affected by the contamination. We've been exposed for so long that what's human in us has quite literally melted away. This also explains what would seem like fatalistic tendencies on our part. It's not really that we're not afraid to die; it's that we're not exactly living anyway. In any case, I would say that our masks really protect the sanity of others instead of doing anything for us. Without our masks, I imagine those labels others give us would be a lot more unpleasant than just "ghosts". But that Coppelion girl... We encountered them again today, and we abducted one of them. When their leader came to rescue their teammate, the Commander revealed his face to her. But she wasn't repulsed in the least, as would have been expected of anyone not knowing what lay beneath; she actually smiled as if in relief. And I still remember her subsequent words very clearly: "You have the eyes of a normal human." Her words shook me. For the first time in a long while I felt almost like I was actually living again, and not merely existing. She saw us differently - we weren't ghosts or mere insubstantial phantoms to her. In her eyes, we were normal humans. This Coppelion girl... She's really something, isn't she? Nov 13 - 1st Division Personnel Log Our plans are gradually but steadily coming to fruition at last. We've bided our time all this while, and now not even the Self Defense Forces' greatest hope - the Coppelion - will be able to stop us. It's even somewhat ironic, if you stop and think about it. The Coppelion they depend so heavily upon is in actuality the key to the success of our plans. By creating the Coppelion, they've enabled our putting these plans into action. And now they've taken the Commander into custody, but that won't matter in the least. We are all one and the same; we work but for one sole purpose, and we will not be stopped before that purpose is attained. It's all we have left to live for. Everything we need is in place now. All we need to do is to get to the Coppelion. Once we have them on hand, we'll be able to get to the sarcophagus. That looming, hulking shell of a building... Every time I see it I can't help but feel a surge of hatred. It once stood so tall and proud, the answer to all energy woes and the promise of a bright, immaculate future ahead with our nation at the forefront of all other... But I digress; the past is all too easy to lose yourself in. Now we look to the future - or perhaps I should specifically state, the very near future. When we finally get to the sarcophagus and detonate the bomb, there won't be anything left for anyone to mourn. There will be no scrap of land left untouched, no person left unaffected by the resultant explosion of contamination We won't just have a Former Capital after that; the entire country will become a Former Nation. And when that day finally comes to pass, they will understand how we've suffered all these years. They will rue the day they abandoned us, and we will make them feel such arrant regret for every second they still live. Soon, all this will end. Nov 20 - Scientist's Note Perfection is impossible. We were all well aware of that from the beginning, but we couldn't help trying. It's only human to fail, but it's also only human to desire to better ourselves. For what it's worth, and objectively speaking, the culmination of our efforts may yet have more benefits than drawbacks. Besides, we're the ones reaping the benefits, while the aftereffects are wholly borne by the Coppelion alone anyway. And they're just dolls anyway, right? Nothing more than tools that we should use to our advantage. Theirs is but an artificial existence; they were created by our hand, so it shouldn't matter to them whether they die, or how they die, shouldn't it? ...I wish I believed this more. This is what they tell us; this is the politically correct line, meticulously pruned to serve its purpose of discouraging subversion or deviance of thought. This is what they inculcate in us and drill into us, all so we don't fall prey to our own misgivings about how grave an ethical transgression this entire project actually is. Stripping all the euphemism away, the Coppelion are really mere lab rats - we experiment on them, modify their genes, add what we perceive are enhancements. Aside from the usual physical enhancements, we've even added a dash of more exotic genetic material to some of them. Yet throughout this entire process, not for one moment is the focus ever on the potential negative effects of these modifications on the Coppelion. The ugly truth of the matter is that they'll all die. Not the way all living matter eventually does as part of the natural cycle, but abruptly, without warning and without cause. Amongst all the inhumane aspects of the Coppelion project, this strikes me as the most cruel and unjust. The Coppelion are not dolls. They may be clones of people, but they move and breathe and feel just like other living humans. I would have preferred if we'd implemented some sort of technique that removed their emotional capabilities. They would have been nothing more than robots, but at least then I would probably feel less guilty about what we subject them to. At least then they might not understand what it would mean to form bonds with others or to feel an attachment to this world, only to have it suddenly and violently wrenched away from them when they die... Nov 27 - Scientist's Note While I continue to struggle with the ethicality of the Coppelion project, I must say that as a scientist, the results have truly been fascinating. All too often I preoccupy myself with fretting over what has been added to the subjects, and I neglect to appreciate the significance of the base to which these attributes are added. A superficial observation of the Coppelion would suffice to put paid to those endless nature versus nurture debates. Of course, I must admit that some of our choices of subjects to clone were controversial to say the least, but truly, the outcome of these choices has been remarkable. I suppose the Doctor, for all his madness, does know what he's doing when it comes to the Coppelion. Take the Ozu sisters, for instance. Cloned from the beautiful actress Kuon Ozu, they've retained her stunning features and her lithe physique, but the similarities are not just skin-deep. Her lovely appearance belied a deeply disturbed psyche, and that aspect is replicated in much the same way in this pair of sisters. Even during their short time in the military school they terrorized the other students - I know Aoi Fukasaku was one of those more affected by them. I remember seeing her turn even paler than usual whenever they were around, and the mere hint of their voices would make her jump. It's no surprise really, given how they bullied her in school. Come to think of that, I wonder how Aoi is doing now in the Former Capital. I never would have sent her in, since she's always been for me one of the more endearing subjects of the project. There's a keen sense of earnestness about her; she tries so hard, so even when she does make a mess of things it's hard to hold it against her. And then there's Ibara as well... I know we're not supposed to have favourites, but there's really nothing to fault her for. She performed flawlessly while in training, and I presume she must be doing equally well in the Former Capital now. She's also just about the most compassionate subject in the entire project - which makes her well-suited as leader of the Healthcare Squad. I know Vice-principal Mishima worries about them, but they couldn't be in better hands. Dec 04 - 1st Division Technician's Record Such a fruitful day today! The patrollers retrieved more gizmos for us to examine. I heard that these all came from one of those Coppelion dolls. Apparently he's quite gifted in the science of weaponry, and he's made all of these by hand. I'm not sure how true that could be, but if he did do so I'd really like to meet him. We would have so much to talk about, and we could learn so much from each other. It's fascinating, the mechanics that he has built into these weapons. And with so little resources too, since I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to bring much with him from outside. Like that little bomb that the patrollers recovered from their encounter with the Coppelion in the park. I've tried to piece it back together, but the patrollers evidently failed to salvage all its parts. I can only surmise that its design was such that it would break apart in the sky, sending its contents over a large area. It's such a simple but brilliant design, modeled after nature itself. Like the touch-me-nots that burst right open and disperse their seeds at the slightest touch. And the projectiles that it scattered around. I've been testing it, and it seems they discharge some form of electric current that is similar to that occurring in and given off by living matter. Now I'm not entirely sure about this either, but I suppose this could have been targeted toward one of the Coppelion who are on our side �C that blonde girl. I've suspected for a while now that she possesses some form of detection ability; no one ever gets by her without her noticing. What I would give to be able to examine her! Or I could ask her outright... It's just that she's kind of intimidating. I know she's supposed to be on our side, but somehow I don't feel like I can trust her very much at all. And aside from these new discoveries, we also finally got to field test our baby! Well, I say we, but it's really just the patrollers. I rarely get outside. But it feels good anyhow to know that I'm able to help our cause in some way. That Coppelion weapons-maker, whoever you are, I hope you're excited to see our creation! We spent months and months on the Iron Spider, making sure it would be a perfect war machine. It's such a beauty to behold that I was almost a little upset they were taking it out of storage... Dec 11 - 1st Division Personnel Log Things have changed, and they've changed in an incredibly subtle way. It came on so gradually that I hardly even noticed it before today. But things are undoubtedly different now. There seems to be more dissent than usual, but it's not entirely an issue of morale. We're less of a hive mind than we used to be, and I'm not sure it's just because the Commander has been taken into custody by the Coppelion. It's almost as if we're no longer sure of the path that lies ahead of us. No one is willing to voice such nonconformist remarks - we're not all that changed as yet - but there's a general sentiment amongst at least a portion of the men. I'm reluctant to give too much credit to the Coppelion, but it's true that their appearance has been integral in bringing about this shift. Before they arrived, we were bent on having our vengeance upon the world that forsook us. Yet following every encounter with them, I can feel this determination wavering. To be more precise, it's really not the Coppelion as a whole I'm referring to; it's that one particular group of girls. The Ibara girl - the one who looked straight at the Commander and said he had human eyes - she's the one who's the most different of all. I don't mean any disrespect to the Commander, but to be able to see him with his mask off, and still calmly affirm his humanity� It's not something anyone could do. What she said to the Commander has spread throughout the ranks, and it's undoubtedly part of what's fueling this change. Of course, not all of us feel the same way. There are still some of us who are still intent on bringing our original plans to fruition. They're the ones who remain unreservedly supportive of the Ozu sisters, despite their utter vindictiveness. Sometimes I do wonder, though, if going ahead with the plan is what's best for us. After all, an eye for an eye only makes the world go blind, does it not? Dec 18 - 1st Division Personnel Log It's almost laughable how things can change so completely and so swiftly. Or how the smallest things or one single individual can upend the world you've known so well for so long. I'm not sure what to think any longer. None of us do. All that we're familiar with has been turned on its head by the Coppelion. They've changed everything - there's simply no way for us to continue living the way we did. With the wind closing in on us so rapidly, we were certain that this would finally be the end. The wind was howling in our ears even as we fought to stop those survivors from leaving. But there was something else in the wind as well, and it took a moment before any of us could recognize it because it'd been so long since we'd heard anything like it. It was the sound of a train. That unmistakable clang of metal against metal. It was a train pulling into the station, and absurd as it sounds, it was almost as if we all moved as one to the platform once we'd determined what the sound was. All along we've been trained to be able to sacrifice ourselves for our cause at the drop of a hat, yet when it comes right down to it I doubt any of us would be able to do so unfalteringly. I guess it's only human to want to live, so it wasn't surprising in the least that we would be drawn to the train. What did catch all of us off guard was what the Coppelion girl did - she called out to us. She welcomed us onto the train. And she did this when just moments before we had been on opposite sides, shooting at each other. All this while all we've done is hunt them down, forcing them into corners and trying to exploit their immunity to radiation for our own gain. Yet they've repaid our brutality with nothing but kindness and generosity. I could hardly believe what was happening even as I clambered onto the train. A white world. That's what the other Coppelion girl said when the train first entered that dense barrier of fog that marked the end of the Zone. For a moment, as the train sped past, it was so still and tranquil. Nothing about it suggested the fact that it was deadly. And then, almost all too soon, we were through the barrier. It feels silly to say this, but it truly felt like we were entering a new world and leaving behind this toxic white world. As if we were also leaving behind all our preconceptions and misunderstandings... Dec 25 - 1st Division Personnel Log Even the constant whirring of the helicopter's rotor blades can't quite drown out the pervasive silence in here. I guess we're all just caught up in our own thoughts... It's certainly been a tumultuous week after all, although to be precise, it hasn't actually been a week. It feels like we've all aged by decades but it's really only been four days since everything was set in motion. From where I'm seated I can see Vice-Principal Mishima as he stands with the other survivors. He's a greater man than I ever could have imagined; in fact, everyone else has been nothing short of magnanimous. Even after how we've hounded and persecuted them... They're all good people. They're much better people than I could ever aspire to be. And I really couldn't be happier for Tarou and Ibuki and the newest additions to their family. It's been the longest time since any of us have seen infants. They're a lot smaller than I remember them to be... So tiny and vulnerable and fragile, yet they're also ironically the strongest signs of life this city has produced in a very long time. Riku and Sora, that's what Ibara named them. The land and the sky, two completely different entities, yet linked intrinsically as in the bond shared between twins. I wish it had ended a different way for the old man, though. I never knew him, but I wish I had been able to. From the way the others grieved for him, I imagine he must have been a good person too. I'm kind of glad he seemed at peace when he passed away though. I heard from the others that he'd spoken of a desire to see the sunset, because he liked the way the city became awash with rich red light. I'm glad he managed to see that. At least the last glimpse of the city he saw was something beautiful. There's more activity over the radio now. I suppose we're almost there now. I wonder how Nagoya will look. How different will it be from here on out? Category:Coppelion